Winter is coming....This is not to cite the famous line from
"Game of Thrones" but to highlight the desperation which has hit the
terrorists across the POK and their Pakistani perpetrators hard. There has been
22 ceasefire violations since the 29th September surgical strikes, clear signs
of Pakistan trying to infiltrate as many terrorists within India to cause mayhem,
before winter peaks and infiltration through treacherous mountains almost
becomes impossible. Beyond these, there also have been desperate attempts to
retaliate to surgical strikes, predominantly in Baramulla (where we lost one of
our Braveheart, 24 years old Nitin Kumar) and again Handwara on 6th October, 2016
where 3 terrorists were neutralized.
However, the irony is that while our soldiers are braving it
out at the borders in response to Pakistan's desperate retaliation, we have a
bunch of pseudo liberals and apologists here in India, for whom their politics and
vicious social agenda supersedes the primary expectation from we civilians today
i.e. to stand behind our forces in complete unity in these testing times.
Let's consider these contentious issues affecting the nation
today post the surgical strikes one at a time:
1) "Purposely"
Falling for Pakistan's Lie - As cited in my last post, it was always
obvious that Pakistan won’t own up to these surgical strikes because it
invariably would mean that they were harboring terrorists further emboldening
India's stance to declare Pakistan a terrorist state. They would also then be
expected to retaliate back to India militarily to satisfy their domestic
audience, which they very well know they are not capable of in a conventional
warfare. At best they can carry on proxy war with us, which they have expectedly
intensified in last week.
Lastly, and more importantly, it's in the DNA of Pakistan
that they do not own up to their losses.
Even today they claim that they own part of Siachen glacier,
which in fact they had lost control of almost 20 years back. During Kargil War they
denied till last breadth that their Northern Light Infantry division had any role
to play in it, so much so that they even declined to accept the bodies of their
own soldiers and finally it was India which provided cremation for their soldiers
with dignity. Less said about the 65 War and 71 War the better. In fact, the
disgrace of 93000 soldiers surrendering in 1971 war is unprecedented of any
military conflict post the Second World War. Facts which Pakistan fails to acknowledge even today.
Thus to fall for false propaganda of rogue state with such a
distinguished track record of lies, and then to use it as a pretext to cast
aspersions on our own military operations goes beyond being just “Naïve” to “Purposely”
adhering to Pakistan’s lies in order to satisfy short term political objectives
for some and establish the liberal and elitist credentials for others. What these pseudo liberals and apologists fail
to understand though is that while their real “target” is to counter the political
courage and pragmatism of political leadership of Modi Government, but
essentially, what they end up doing is letting the country and Army down when
as a nation we need to speak in one Voice against a common menace, terrorism.
2) The Politics:
Demand for Proofs of the Surgical Strikes - Having followed
politics closely for last 20 years now, I feel this is the lowest level where our
politicians can transgress to.
Our politicians (Arvind Kejriwal, Sanjay Nirupam,
Manishankar Ayyar, Ajay Alok, P Chidambram, Rahul Gandhi, Congress Spokespersons
and Left Parties and the entire gang of apologists and pseudo liberals) asking for proof of surgical strikes, even going
to extent of calling them “fake” or “jumla”, just because Pakistan doesn't
accept our claims is not just absolutely absurd but even sinister. In fact post
surgical strikes; it was Director General Military Operations (DGMO) Ranbir
Singh himself, who briefed the nation on the military operation conducted. His
words were sacrosanct and beyond any suspicion for a common Indian,
but not for those opportunists who keep clamoring for more proof that surgical
attack took place.
Fact of the matter is all politicians cited above, very well
knew that a military operation did actually happen. Their real objective is actually
to ask Government for stuff, which due to larger strategic and military interest,
Government would be unwilling to share publicly, and rightly so, but thus allowing
opposition to create suspicion and put Government in a dock. It’s actually the political
insecurity which breeds in a façade of asking for such proofs, which more than
anyone else the ISI and Pakistan Army would be most interested in knowing about. That’s because even after a week of surgical
strikes, they are in shock and stand embarrassed as to how India conducted a
strike of this precision when they were “supposedly” at their peak of
preparedness towards any eventuality from Indian side post Uri attacks.
To be precise, it’s the fear psyche of BJP and particularly
Modi reaping political dividends out of this military operation is what is actually
driving opposition parties insane to a point where they fail to fathom the distinction
between politics and national interest. To Modi's credit, which further adds to
his statesmanship, he has not issued one statement post surgical strikes to
score unwanted brownie points. Fact is, while years we lived in political
despondency and strategic restraint, the credit is due for political leadership
this time which finally gave go ahead for a cross border strike of this magnitude
and objective. While Indira Gandhi is hailed as architect of 1971 victory and no
one questions that, it’s but natural that post these surgical strikes Modi too
has carved his own place in history despite what cynics and his perennial
bashers may have to say. It’s no chest thumping but simply put, giving credit
where due.
To understand how this politics have been played out in last
couple of weeks is pretty interesting. Post Uri attacks, when it appeared that
Modi too like earlier dispensations would opt for diplomatic options than
military, these forces were out in full force to mock him and his 56 inch chest.
Then the surgical strikes happened and the narrative changed. Barring a few,
almost every political party appreciated the Army but avoided praising the Central
government and the firm leadership of Modi. This came despite them being fully
aware that Army always had capability and wherewithal to conduct such an operation,
but what India lacked was political will which Modi exhibited here with full
might and eventual success.
With Modi's popularity expected to soar among masses,
desperate attempts started to pull him down and thus started the “shameful game” of playing hand in glove with Pakistan
to ask Government for proofs pertaining to surgical strikes. This though backfired
almost immediately as people irrespective of their political affiliation would
not tolerate politicians to degrade our Army's integrity and so the narrative had
to be changed again. Now this opportunist brigade came up with disclaimer that
though they respect Army but oppose Government politicizing and publicizing
these operations...!!!! Same Government which right from day one had let Army
do the talking, whose PM hasn't spoken a word yet on the attacks, and whose
ministers have spoken in most restraint voices despite being otherwise termed
as “Hyper Nationalist” by their opponents.
Couple of questions for this pseudo liberal brigade:
Firstly, did they also ask for proof from Pope as well for
Mother Teresa’s miracles when he canonized her as Saint recently or that their
desire for proof arises only when their own politics seems to be in jeopardy?
This is important to know because for an average Indian who
is beyond any tags today, who is neither liberal nor extremist, neither
rightist or leftist, neither capitalist nor socialist, for them our Armed
Forces, their sacrifice, their valor and their "words" are sacrosanct.
We value our soldier who defends us day in and day out when we civilians are
living a normal life and sleep peacefully at night with assurance that soldiers
at the borders are at task. To ask these soldiers to prove their words because
Pakistan doesn't accept strikes took place is synonymous to a monkey court
trial where you start doubting integrity of a judge because the convict
believes the judge is partial.
Secondly, can this pseudo liberal brigade tell us that apart
from Pakistan which "One" single nation has actually claimed in last
1 week that they doubt India's surgical strikes?? NONE. It's just the figment
of imagination of these politicians, who conveniently prefer relying on some unsubstantiated
reports in BBC and CCN fed upon by Pakistan’s propagandist Army, to not just belittle
the diplomatic and strategic success of the present dispensation but also, and
more importantly, the valor and sacrifice of our soldiers in the battlefield.
Some even brought UN as an alibi to express doubts on surgical
strike so let me set the record straight: UN never doubted the occurrence of
strikes. All they said was they are not in knowhow, which is but obvious since
their mission is based out of Muzaffarabad (capital of POK) and not in areas
adjoining LOC where the strikes actually took place. They however did ask for
peace in the region which anyways they have been doing for last 60 years and
onus for same lies more on Pakistan by stopping the cross border terrorism. But
to use the distorted interpretation of UN statement to cast aspersions on
strikes is stretching things a bit too far for narrow political gains or more
importantly here to prevent potential political collateral damage, sadly at nation's interest.
While even Pervez Musharraf, albeit grudgingly, and other
prominent Pakistani journalists have expressed concerns off late as to how today
Pakistan is becoming isolated globally, it’s sheer ironical and sad that Arvind
Kejriwal, CM of Delhi, India’s Capital, appreciates and tweets article that
claim that rather than Pakistan, its India which is getting isolated globally (a
fact which even a Pakistani with any semblance of sanity will find difficult to
believe)and is further worshipped as hero in Pakistani newspapers for last two
days for asking Modi for proofs on surgical strikes. No wonder, top trending
tweet in Pakistan today was “IStandwithKejriwal”. So much so for expecting our politicians to
stand behind our Indian Army.
3) Such
Strikes were carried out in the past as well but this Government publicized it –
Another “white” lie propagated by previous Congress government which has gained
momentum in last one week. While these prior governments never had the political
courage to back the Army for surgical strikes (that’s why the entire nation was
waiting for one), today once these strikes have actually taken place everyone wants
to join the bandwagon and claim "we also did so, what's so Great about it".
Firstly, no one denies that Cross LOC actions have taken in
the past, but to compare it with the magnitude and strategic objective of this
operation is simply being naive to an extent that it starts appearing hilarious
and disgusting. Also for learned members of Congress party and their supporters
on social media, let’s set the record straight.
Congress claims that they carried out 3 surgical strikes
during 2011-2014, but to cite, Lt. Gen. Vinod Bhatia (DGMO, 2012-2014), by far
the best person to give the true account of things from the ground, there is
absolutely no comparison between those strikes claimed by Congress and the
present surgical strikes. He explicitly goes on to say that "earlier
strikes were not even strikes, they were cross-border operations done at the
local level without much planning, without much thought”.
On the other hand this current operation " are a
defining moment, where all elements of national power, that is the diplomatic,
informational, military, economic, political, cultural – have synergized, and
for the first time, India has given a befitting response to terrorist
operations in the counter-terror domain". Similar thoughts have been echoed
by almost every former and present Army personnel and strategic experts. Beyond
this justification, for those who still believes that Congress spokespersons
and old loyalists like Mani Shankar Aiyar (who even objects to US Navy Seals
killing respected Osama Bin Laden while he was unarmed..!!, what more to
expect), knows more about surgical strikes than former DGMO's and Army Chief's,
this article definitely doesn’t intends to please them at all.
To
conclude:
As Indian, it saddens us today, to see the disgust being
served day in and day out on our television and media from mouths of
politicians with Rahul Gandhi, VP of the grand old party of India, himself bringing
the discourse to lowest possible level with his “Khoon Ki Dalali” jibe uttered
in an election rally.
While earlier we would have given ourselves the benefit of
doubt that this would be filthiest of rhetoric we would be hearing in quite
some time, let’s not be surprised though that tomorrow some other loud mouthed
politician will set the new benchmark for further low in the political discourse.
But as a common Indian just had one question today….How much more low do we actually
intend to fall as a nation?? Isn’t it
enough already???? Every morning when we get up first thing we see if our
forces at borders have not been attacked again and pray for their safety and by
evening all you find is petty politicians shouting their lungs out for narrow
political vote bank politics on various news channels completely oblivious to
the sacrifice made by our soldiers.
Let’s put things straight. The PM is PM not for just BJP,
but the entire nation. It’s so distinctly visible that some people have still
not come to terms with this. Same set of people who believe that ruling this
country and driving all the political, social and economic discourse of this
country is their birth right. They need to understand that in PM Modi our armed
forces have democratically found a true leader who is not just pragmatic but
also courageous to take tough calls in times of adversity. Its pity that even in these testing times when
the valor and sacrifice of our soldiers can’t unite these opportunistic forces
and makes them stand as “ONE”, what sadly unites them is their pathological
hatred for one individual, Narendra Modi, whereby they allow their domestic differences to supersede the larger national interests.
This is the saddest phase of Indian
politics and what’s worse is that the collateral damage of the same is felt most
by our armed forces. Our Armed Forces, whose morale, should have been sky high
after the exemplary surgical strikes that they carried out (among the best in
counter operations history over the world), would actually be at their lowest
when they see on television the lousy civilians for whom they are shedding
their blood in the battlefield.
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